Ethel the Blog
Observations (and occasional brash opining) on science, computers, books, music and other shiny things that catch my mind's eye. There's a home page with ostensibly more permanent stuff. This is intended to be more functional than decorative. I neither intend nor want to surf on the bleeding edge, keep it real, redefine journalism or attract nyphomaniacal groupies (well, maybe a wee bit of the latter). The occasional cheap laugh, raised eyebrow or provocation of interest are all I'll plead guilty to in the matter of intent. Bene qui latuit bene vixit.

The usual copyright stuff applies, but I probably won't get enraged until I find a clone site with absolutely no attribution (which, by the way, has happened twice with some of my other stuff). Finally, if anyone's offended by anything on this site then please do notify me immediately. I like to keep track of those times when I get something right.

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"When they say, 'Gee it's an information explosion!', no, it's not an explosion, it's a disgorgement of the bowels is what it is. Every idiotic thing that anybody could possibly write or say or think can get into the body politic now, where before things would have to have some merit to go through the publishing routine, now, ANYTHING." - Harlan Ellison JOLLY OLD PALS Other stuff of mild interest to some: unusual literature scientific software blog physical oceanography glossary computer-related tutorials and texts Thursday, July 05, 2001 BASHING BIG TONY Excerpts from Alan Dershowitz's Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Highjacked Election 2000 (via a review by Gary Kamiya via Booknotes). About Scalia's use of the equal protection clause in light of all his previous rulings on the matter: Scalia has repeatedly said that his job is not to 'revise' the equal-protection clause, nor to 'prescribe' on his own authority 'progressively higher degrees' of equality. The equal-protection clause, in his view, cannot 'supersede ... those constant and unbroken national traditions that embody the people's understanding of ambiguous constitutional texts' ... The Florida standard for hand-counting votes -- the clear intent of the voter -- fits precisely into Scalia's criteria for a law or practice that should not be struck down: It is not expressly prohibited by the text of the Constitution, it bears the endorsement of many states over a long period of time, and it has never previously been challenged. Yet Scalia voted to strike it down, despite his previous strong view that there is no basis for striking down such a standard. On judicial rhetoric vs. reality: Had he passed the test posed by this case, history might well have remembered him as the man of principle he claims to be. But he failed the test, and failed it badly ... Scalia's vote in Bush v. Gore has shown that the most accurate guide to predicting his judicial decisions is to follow his political and personal preferences rather than his lofty rhetoric about judicial restraint, originalism, and other abstract aspects of his so-called constraining judicial philosophy, which turns out to be little more than a cover for his politics and his desire to pack the Court with like-minded justices. Kamiya's review mentions a recent book by conservative legal writer Richard Posner wherein Posner apparently concedes the ridiculousness of the Court's official ruling on the matter, i.e. If the majority did not want even a fair recount, there is only one possible justification that could be offered for its action: It was acting to prevent a national crisis that could have erupted had Gore prevailed and two sets of Florida electors appeared before a divided Congress. This is the argument made by Richard Posner, a conservative legal scholar and judge. "What exactly is the Supreme Court good for if it refuses to examine a likely constitutional error that, if uncorrected, will engender a national crisis?" he wrote. In his new book Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts, Posner asserts that pragmatism -- in this case, the desire to head off a crisis -- was the "hidden ground" not just of Bush vs. Gore but of many judicial decisions. Ah, so Big Tony et al. were altruistically saving the country from a December Revolution rather than electing their favorite candidate to the Presidency. Well, it certainly makes more sense than the legal house of cards released as the official decision, or as Kamiya puts it: Even assuming that the high court was right to get involved in a murky issue of state election law in the first place; even assuming that it was wise for justices with an inescapably personal interest in the outcome to jump into a highly political dispute; even assuming that the issuance of the stay, which stopped the recount, really did prevent Bush from suffering the "irreparable harm" of a "cloud" over the "legitimacy of his election"; even assuming there was some way to reconcile the majority's suddenly activist stance with all of its previous views about state sovereignty; even assuming that there was also some way to reconcile the majority's highly tactical, avowedly one-time-only intervention with its members' previous views about fidelity to precedent and the necessity of basing decisions on broad judicial principle; even assuming that the Supreme Court was correct in its adventurous (and again unprecedented) finding that Florida's vote-counting standard was unconstitutionally broad; even assuming that this standard was a greater equal-protection violation than the existence of completely different voting systems throughout the state -- even assuming all this, why didn't the court simply remand the case back to the Florida court and ask it to come up with a universal standard for counting votes? Dershowitz's most compelling argument involves attempting to imagine if the Court would have handed down the same decision if the shoe had been on the other foot, i.e. if Gore had been ahead with Bush appealing for a recount. Considering this sets me to laughing every bit as hard as Scalia would be if attempting to write about Gore suffering from the "irreparable harm" of a "cloud" over the "legitimacy of his election." posted by Steven Baum 7/5/2001 09:35:17 AM | link Monday, July 02, 2001 COMING BACK UP LIKE A BAD TACO Another piece in the June 29 Progressive Review bears repeating here. It concerns Eliot Abrams, one of if not the most unctuous and odious character from the Reagan era, and one who was pardoned by Bush on Christmas eve in 1992 along with five other Iran-Contra malignancies. FOR THE FIRST TIME in American history, a high government official pardoned for criminal activity by one president has been appointed to a high government position by another. President Bush has named Elliot Abrams to a senior position at the White House National Security Council. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice announced that Abrams had been appointed to the position of senior director for democracy, human rights and international operations, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. Abrams was up to his eyeballs in the unconstitutional operation and international war crime known as Iran-Contra. And he was in it alongside such odious colleagues as Oliver North and William Walker. Abrahms was pardoned by George Bush Sr along with the likes of Caspar Weinberger and Robert McFarlane. Part of Abrams' job was to spin the Iran-Contra and spin he did. In 1987, US Rep. Jack Brooks told Abrams that he took "more pride in not knowing anything than anybody I ever saw." Replied Abrams, "I never said I had no idea about most of the things you said I said I had no idea about." Abrams was also involved in keeping Americans from understanding what was realy going on with the Central American death squads, including 70,000 killed in El Salvador, 100,000 in Guatemala. The appointment of the seedy Abrams is bad enough, but that Bush figured he could get away with it is a dismal sign of the state of honor in Washington. posted by Steven Baum 7/2/2001 11:21:31 AM | link THE REAL DR. STRANGELOVE The June 29 Progressive Review points to an informative piece about who Dr. Strangelove was really based on. The candidates are Henry Kissinger, Werner von Braun, Edward Teller and Herman Kahn, with the latter getting the nod. Given the current adminstration's desire to reignite the cold war via throwing trainloads of money at their corporate masters to build a white elephant, Kahn's Thinking the Unthinkable and other tomes may once again find wide readership. Another book that may be revived is Norman Spinrad's Russian Spring, wherein a plot line concerns the U.S. going bankrupt building a missile shield. I've always been a big fan of the Bloom County series where Opus gets big defense dollars by proposing to build a missile shield out of dollar bills. Damn but I miss that strip and the rest of my non-misspent youth. The last word here will go to Slim Pickens, who uttered these classic lines just a few minutes before he rode into eternity: Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one 45 caliber automatic, two boxes of ammunition, four days concentrated emergency rations, one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills, one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible, one hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred in gold, nine packs of chewing gum, one issue of prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pairs of nylon stockings. Shoot! A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff. posted by Steven Baum 7/2/2001 11:06:32 AM | link TEXAS REBEL RADIO One of the unexpected bonuses of having my sorry, homebound, unadventurous carcass dragged out to Texas Hill Country this weekend was my discovery of Texas Rebel Radio (FM 107.9). It's located in Fredericksburg and, if you're into the sort of Texas music it plays, is an aural goldmine. The first tune I heard played on it was Chris Rea's "The Road to Hell," and I heard another Rea tune the next day. Rea's a very good albeit obscure Brit artist who never quite made it big over here, although he consistently puts out interesting albums featuring his laconic vocal style and non-puerile lyrics. I guess it's the "laconic" part that qualifies him for Texas radio. So what is Texas music? They offer a pretty good definition at their site: Texas music includes rhythm and blues, rock, country, folk, jazz, western swing, honky tonk, Tejano and bluegrass all wrapped up with spiritual and cajun influences. Texas music is all these things and more. From A to Z it's as varied as Asleep at the Wheel and ZZ Top. It's Roy Orbison and the Texas Tornados, Lyle Lovett and T-Bone Walker, George Strait, Robert Earl Keen Jr., Willie Nelson, Nancy Griffith, Delbert Mc Clinton, Bonnie Raitt, Marcia Ball, Michael Martin Murphy and hundreds of others. For those unfortunate enough to not live in that paradisical area, they offer a live audio stream of their programming, although it's via the MS Media Player rather than the Linux-friendly RealAudio. I may have to set up a M*cr*s*ft box solely to stream the station, unless someone more savvy has figured out a way to play the MS stuff on a Linux box. I also had to pleasure to visit a dance hall once played regularly by Bob Wills, and to finally make it to Luckenbach (although without Waylon and Willie and the boys), where half a dozen or so old and young boys with guitars mined the rich Texas songwriting vein into the wee hours. Shiner Bock provided additional entertainment. posted by Steven Baum 7/2/2001 09:10:16 AM | link

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